7
Despite the fact that Aveline was truly horrible at flirting, she and Donnic still ended up getting together after the patrol.
After Anders, Varric, and I left Aveline and Donnic happily behind at the Keep, we were ambushed by Sebastian, who wanted help invading the estate of the Harrimans, the people who had been behind the murder of his family.
We agreed mainly to get him to stop following us around, and I figured that it would be a pretty straightforward job. It wasn't.
As soon as we entered the estate, Sebastian noted that something was off. It quickly became apparent that this was indeed the case.
The first indication that something was wrong besides the mess that the building was happened we came upon a woman standing next to a wine barrel raving. This in itself might not have been that odd; she could have just been drunk. When we entered the next room, however, to find a nobleman standing next to a pot of molten gold talking about how he was going to pour it over the elven woman being held by a servant nearby, it was obvious that something more than alcohol was causing whatever was going on here. Luckily, Sebastian had the presence of mind to punch the servant holding the woman still, allowing her to escape. The nobleman didn't seem to care. Instead, he began muttering about how maybe he should be the one to have molten gold poured over him. We quietly backed out of the room.
We wandered around until we reached the cellar, where the nobleman and woman from upstairs suddenly popped out of the shadows along with a second man, who for some reason wasn't wearing a shirt. The woman announced "You shall not enter!" at which point all three of them collapsed on the ground, eyes rolling up into their heads. It wasn't a very good tactic for stopping us from going anywhere.
We did have to fight our way past a few- alright a rather large number of- demons, but it wasn't much longer before we found the source of the trouble. Namely, a desire demon. Also Lady Harriman, who was, when we arrived, in the middle of asking the demon for more power so she could get the people of Starkhaven to actually listen to the puppet that she had put on the throne. There was a small argument as Sebastian, likely correctly, accused the demon of instigating Lady Harriman's betrayal of his family. Then the demon made a big mistake. It started to suggest I would do something similar. It got a fireball to the face as a response. By the time I was through both the demon and Lady Harriman, who had also attacked us, were dead.
When we got back to the cellar, we found the woman from earlier, who spent at least five minutes apologizing to Sebastian and being horrified about having been under demonic mind control. She ended up promising to support Sebastian when he reclaimed the Starkhaven throne. Somehow, I didn't feel that was too likely. Sebastian was too in love with the idea of being in the Chantry.
We waited until the next morning to go talk to the Grand Cleric about the missing qunari. Before we could get there, however, we were ambushed by Petrice, the woman who had sent us into the qunari ambush three years earlier. "Sister Petrice," I said politely, despite inwardly being instantly suspicious of her timing.
"It's Mother Petrice, now, actually," she said in a stuck-up tone. "What do you want?"
"Well," I said, "It seems a Templar used the Grand Cleric's seal to authorize the abduction of a Qunari delegation." Petrice looked nervous. "Let me guess, you knew. The question is, does the Grand Cleric know?"
"She trusts me," said Petrice evasively.
"In other words, she doesn't. Oh, you are in trouble."
Petrice looked angry. "Fine. Since you've figured out what happened, I'm going to sell out the Templar so I won't get in trouble. His name's Ser Varnell. Meet me here at this time and I'll show you where he took the Qunari," she said, writing something down on a slip of paper and handing it to me.
When it was time to go meet Petrice and see what she- sorry Ser Varnell- had done with the missing Qunari delegates, I dragged everyone except Isabella, who still refused to go within five hundred feet of anywhere she knew there would be Qunari, down to the place Varnell was holding his super-secret meeting.
"Ser Varnell!" shouted Petrice angrily.
Varnell obviously couldn't recognize her tone, because he seemed happy to see her. "Take a knee, brothers and sisters!" he called to the mob that was listening to him rant about the Qunari. "The Chantry blesses us!"
"You claim a blessing when you have used the Grand Cleric's seal so openly?" snapped Petrice.
"Translation: your carelessness got you caught so I'm hanging you out to dry," I said.
Petrice ignored me. "The Qunari have friends, Ser Varnell. How will you answer their allegations?"
"Actually, nobody here is really a 'friend' of the Qunari except possibly Fenris. We do disapprove of kidnapping and attacking people who can't fight back, though, so we're going to kill you," I told him.
"Templars are cowards," added Anders disdainfully. "They only pick on those whose lives they already hold in their hands."
Petrice, seeing where this was going, bolted for the exit. Before anyone else could move, Ser Varnell turned around and cut the throats of the delegates. "Oh, it is so on," I muttered, beginning to charge up a large fireball.
The Viscount was not happy when he came down and saw what had happened. He paced around looking at the bodies. "Madness, madness! Chantry involvement. Even if it is just fringe elements, this is still going to be a disaster!"
"The Chantry has seen the abuses the Templars get away with," said Anders bitterly. "Why would they not think to do the same?"
The Viscount appeared to choose to ignore this. "And you killed them. Did you kill all of them?" he looked a bit hopeful.
"All of the ones here, though I'm certain that there are others who weren't."
The Viscount looked pained. "And we can't give the bodies back to the Arishok like this."
"Actually, I'm pretty sure the Arishok will figure out what happened if you try to hide it. That'll only make it worse."
"It would, wouldn't it? I'm losing my sense of how to balance this nightmare." That much was obvious. "Thank you for helping here, at least. This would have been a lot worse without you." The Viscount wandered off, muttering to himself and looking upset.
When I got back home, I found Uncle Gamlen talking to Sandal. Gamlen seemed upset. "No! Not enchantment, Leandra! Le-an-dra!"
"Uncle Gamlen? Is everything all right?" I asked.
"There you are!" he sounded exasperated. "Where's your mother? Is she sick?"
"Noooo," I said slowly. "Why would she be sick?"
"She was supposed to be coming to visit me, but she didn't show up. Is she here? I mean, where else could she be?"
"With her suitor, maybe?" asked Bodhan.
"Since when does she have a suitor?" I asked.
"She never mentioned one to me," said Uncle Gamlen.
"Well, those lilies say otherwise," said Bodhan, pointing at a bouquet of white lilies on the side table.
Wait a minute… "White lilies?" I began to feel horror seep into my mind. "Oh, Maker, the serial killer."
"Serial killer? No! She- just took a different path to my house, that's all. I'll ask around, someone must have seen her, she's probably just gotten lost, Maker knows this city's layout is confusing enough." Gamlen was babbling.
"Right, you go do that," I told him. "I'll go talk to Aveline and have her get the City Guard to keep a lookout."
Despite having Uncle Gamlen, all my friends, the City Guard, and half of Darktown after Anders' patients found out what happened searching, there was no sign of mother until after nightfall, when Gamlen eventually found a child in Lowtown who had seen mother earlier. After being given some money, the child told us that he had seen her stop to help a man who appeared to be injured and that the man had left a trail of blood.
We followed the trail through Lowtown. Straight to the very same foundry where we had found the sack of bones three years earlier. This time we found something else.
The trail of blood led straight to a trapdoor. "Looks like someone forgot to conceal the door to his hideout," commented Varric.
"This wasn't here before," I said, feeling confused. It hadn't been. When we had searched the foundry the last time and there had been nothing in that spot but smooth floor.
As soon as we got to the bottom of the stairs hidden underneath the trapdoor we found a room full of shades that attacked us. It also contained the body of Alessa, the woman from Gascard's mansion. This was not looking good.
The next room was set up like a bedroom. "Does he…live here?" I asked. There was a creepy shrine set against the wall surrounding a painting of a woman who looked exactly like mother.
"Hey, Hawke, isn't that your family's crest?" I looked at the shield Varric was pointing to. It was. And I hadn't thought that this could get any more disturbing.
We went down some steps and found another room, this one occupied. There was a man in robes standing next to someone wearing a white hood slumped in a chair. The man looked at us as we entered. "I was wondering when you'd show up," he said. "Leandra was so sure you'd come for her."
"Of course; she knows me," I said. "Where is she?"
The mage didn't pay any attention to that and instead began to monologue. "You will never understand my purpose. Your mother was chosen because she was special, and now she is part of something… greater."
Now, of all times, I did not have the patience for this. "Where. Is. She.?"
The mage continues to monologue. "I have done the impossible. I have touched the face of the Maker and lived. Do you know what the strongest force in the universe is? Love. I pieced her together from memory. I found her eyes, her skin, her delicate fingers." As he walked over to the person sitting in the chair, I could hear a faint buzzing in my ears that I was certain came from a mixture of horror and rage. "And at last her face…oh, this beautiful face. I have searched far and wide to find you again my beloved, and no force on this earth will part us."
The woman sitting in the chair stood, wobbling on her feet. Now that she was facing us, I could see the reason for this was that the different parts of her body had been stitched roughly together. And her head- was mother's. Stuck on top of someone else's neck.
While we were staring in shock and horror, the mage threw a forcefield up around himself and summoned demons that surrounded us. Instantly, all my anger became focused and I began killing all the demons. One. By. One. Then I killed the mage as soon as he could no longer keep his forcefield up.
Mother staggered over to me and collapsed in my arms. I gently lowered her to the floor. "There's nothing I can do," said Anders quietly. "His magic was the only thing keeping her alive."
"I knew you would come," she whispered.
"You know me," I said, feeling my eyes begin to tear up. "That's what I do. Save the day."
"Don't fret," she said. "That man would have kept me trapped here, but now I'm free. I get to see your father again. But you'll be alone."
"Don't worry about me," I said, trying to smile. "I'll be fine."
"My little girl has become so strong. I love you. You've always made me so proud."
"I love you, too" I said. But she was already gone.
Much later that night, Uncle Gamlen found me at home. "Well? Did you find her?"
"Yes. She's gone."
"You were right, about the flowers and everything…I can't believe she's gone." He sobbed. "Why her? Why Leandra?"
"Will knowing bring her back?" I asked bitterly. I sure wish I didn't know why. All it did was make mother's death seem even more horrible and senseless.
"Did you kill the man who did it?"
"Oh, yes. He won't be killing anyone else."
"Good. I need to go write to Carver and Bethany. They have to know. Take care, my dear."
"Yeah." I walked upstairs and sat down on my bed, staring at the ground and feeling miserable and empty.
"I know nothing I say will change it. I just… I'm sorry."
"Hey Anders," I said, not looking up.
"You were lucky to have her as long as you did. When the pain fades, that's what will matter."
"Thanks," I said softly.
He sat down next to me. "I'm here for you. Whatever you need."